WTF? i wish these idiots (the producers) would leave the reggae industry alone. Since when was reggae an exclusive reserve of the rich?will they really sell any of these? Reggae in Japan is a strange old thing. Take the little war of studio one that has rolled out -rock a shacka vs dub store - i for one was very happy (and a bit tickled) when dub store began to release many of the same studio 1rarities that rock a shacka had already pressed - the presentation was almost the same (extremely nice, but without silk screen printed labels) but dub store are charging around £9, while the rock a shacka's retail at £18!! and to top it off dub store pressed from the master tapes, while rock a shacka cut them from remastered original copies. To me that just outlines what a total rip off rock a shacka was in the first place. If DS can do it for half the price, the rest was just pure greed. I wouldn't have taken the decision to repress the same tunes if i were DS, however - that is some strange vendetta type behaviour! Surely they will sell less as people already bought the rock a shacka pressings?? It seems that selling records is not these dude's primary concern - perhaps it is more a hobby to them than a business?But anyway, £18 for the new johnny osbourne above is totally f'in ridiculous. pricing the normal man (not to mention the poor man!) out of reggae - idiots. The collector's revival market is one thing but this type of pricing will kill new reggae stone dead - i hope this tune flops like pavarotti off the 100m diving board. over and out.

you still see plenty of copies of that japanese sangie "words" 12 that was the same price, at any stockists who were foolish enough to stock it at such a ridiculous price - and that was a 12! why do they think their new music is worth 3 times as much as everyone elses???

Indeed a stupid price for the Johnny Osbourne, you can find the whole Truths and Rights lp for way less and I don't think their new version of Jah Promise is so special.So don't buy it if you don't like the price.

Your cry of reggae becoming a luxury item for the rich seems a bit exaggerated and out of context to me. This price is silly but there's also other factors that play a role here. Japanese press is always expensive to purchase because off import cost. And Japanese record prices are high because Japan is an expensive country, period. If you know what a day of living in Tokyo will cost you - even more than getting very very drunk in Norway's capital Oslo.

and to top it off dub store pressed from the master tapes, while rock a shacka cut them from remastered original copies. To me that just outlines what a total rip off rock a shacka was in the first place.

Ever thought about the fact that the original tapes might not exist anymore in the first place?" certainly with 1960s material.

Jack Johnson wrote:you still see plenty of copies of that japanese sangie "words" 12 that was the same price, at any stockists who were foolish enough to stock it at such a ridiculous price - and that was a 12! why do they think their new music is worth 3 times as much as everyone elses???

And you are assuming a correlation here between price and sales. While of course that does not have to be the case. There are other factors why people buy an item or not ( taste, popularity, demand etc)

thank you putting this on here- best reggae track ever, apart from most bob marley﻿ tracks

i am simply asking for a crrelation between cost of production and retail price - the tune did not cost £12 more to make with nice presentation than the £6 everyone else charges...so they are just being greedy in my view and will not be successful..

"Ever thought about the fact that the original tapes might not exist anymore in the first place?" certainly with 1960s material."

Yeah, except if you read my post, dub store managed to find the master tapes and have repressed the same tunes at half the price, still with great presentation. If that is possible, ALSO IN JAPAN (so everything cost the same for them as rock a shacka) rock a shacka were always taking the p--- in my view.Of course you don't mind, edgar, because you are a right wing yuppie.

my point is not that are charging more for good presentation - that's fair enough - it's that they are OVERcharging. And they seem to be creating a new environment where relatively normal people will have no chance of keeping up with reggae releases - ok it ain;t gonna kill anyone, but it's still annoying. How many of Johnny Osbourne's countrymen could EVER afford this record? True they probably can't afford many others either, but does noone else see the irony in this? it's a sign of the times. the edgar's rule.

If anything, I'd argue that unless you've been around for a long time, it's a pretty good time to start a reggae vinyl collection. With so many quality represses now available for relatively little compared to what originals now cost, I don't see how you can argue that one or two extra-pricey represses tip the scales in the other direction.

Guess that recording someone like mr. Osbourne, using real musicians & probably using serious studio & mastering house together with the presentation thing (picture sleeve, obi strip, maybe 180 gr vinyl etc.) made this production expensive. BTW buying it from Japan will cost $18 which is slightly more reasonable...anyway i guess this record was made with Japanese collectors in mind.

Anyway, however you look at it collecting vinyl is becoming more & more of a rich people hobby - most reggae records in my want list already passing the GBP 100 mark...

I think it's probably true to say that there has rarely been a better time to collect reggae vinyl considering the number of reasonably priced reissues and reissues of hard to find records. Pressure Sounds, DKR, Greensleeves albums (Ernie B has them for a little over $8!!!)I agree that these Japanese reissues are too expensive (for my pocket at least). I've only bought one which was Bunny Wailer's Rise and Shine 12". The one thing you have to watch out for is unscrupulous sellers marketing reissues as OG. Just this week I found a very listenable copy of Shorty the President - Natty Pass His GCE - Crazy Joe for $3.39. In real terms that is way cheaper than it was back in the day.

To pick up on Underated's points, my guess is that the reggae vinyl buying public has always been more affluent than the vast majority of Ja artists and sufferahs. The Jamaican diaspora in the UK bought a lot of records and they would generally have been economically better off than folks back in Ja. And to be fair one can care about injustice and work toward correcting injustice without being poor - in fact, in my mind, the whole point would be to lift everyone out of poverty.Art that springs from suffering and poverty has always had immense appeal - Van Gogh would be a classic example.But I do take your point that some of it can seem a little ironic.